Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#75938
of 909177 performers
Top 10%
Arthur Aylesworth works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Arthur Aylesworth appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Arthur. The Grapes of Wrath is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for romance, comedy, western. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Peter Godfrey, Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks and others, Arthur Aylesworth helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
The Grapes of Wrath (1940) as Father (uncredited) · Sergeant York (1941) as Marten - Bartender (uncredited) · Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) as New Salem Townsman (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #75938 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
16
1934–1945
Career length
11 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Grapes of Wrath
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
The Grapes of Wrath
Most frequent director
John Ford
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With John Ford
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 46m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.3
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1940s
6.6 average MV
The 1940s are where the work and the material meet. Christmas in Connecticut, Western Union, Sergeant York — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1940s
6.6
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1940s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1930s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Jesse James, Beau Geste, Drums Along the Mohawk.
Most productive era
1930s
9 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1930s | 1940s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.56 films | 6.93 films |
| Thriller | 6.62 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.31 film | 6.71 film |
| Crime | 6.62 films | — |
| Romance | 6.43 films | 6.71 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1934Dames
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Train Conductor.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Sleigh Driver (uncredited).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
16 of 16 films
as Marten - Bartender (uncredited)
Directed by Howard Hawks
as New Salem Townsman (uncredited)
Directed by John Ford
as Black Horse Troopers Commander (uncredited)
Directed by Archie Mayo
as Sleigh Driver (uncredited)
Directed by Peter Godfrey
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Father (uncredited)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Father (uncredited) gives Arthur Aylesworth a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Marten - Bartender (uncredited)
Sergeant York (1941)
Performance score6.8
Sergeant York asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Marten - Bartender (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
New Salem Townsman (uncredited)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
Performance score6.7
Young Mr. Lincoln asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. New Salem Townsman (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Black Horse Troopers Commander (uncredited)
The Petrified Forest (1936)
Performance score6.7
The Petrified Forest asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Black Horse Troopers Commander (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Father (uncredited)
Start here. The Grapes of Wrath is the clearest statement of what Arthur Aylesworth does — accessible, 129 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Arthur at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Petrified Forest (1936)
Keeps the drama register of The Grapes of Wrath but asks for a colder reading of it.
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
Keeps the drama register of The Petrified Forest but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sergeant York (1941)
Keeps the drama register of Young Mr. Lincoln but asks for a colder reading of it.
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
A deliberate change of key after Sergeant York — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
John Ford
Director
3 films together
Notably The Grapes of Wrath
Ray Enright
Director
1 film together
Notably Dames
Archie Mayo
Director
1 film together
Notably The Petrified Forest
Lloyd Bacon
Director
1 film together
Notably Marked Woman
Victor Fleming
Director
1 film together
Notably Test Pilot
Norman Taurog
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
William A. Wellman
Director
1 film together
Notably Beau Geste
Henry King
Director
1 film together
Notably Jesse James
King Vidor
Director
1 film together
Notably Northwest Passage
William Wyler
Director
1 film together
Notably The Westerner
Michael Curtiz
Director
1 film together
Notably Santa Fe Trail
Howard Hawks
Director
1 film together
Notably Sergeant York
Fritz Lang
Director
1 film together
Notably Western Union
Peter Godfrey
Director
1 film together
Notably Christmas in Connecticut
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
John Ford
Director
3 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Grapes of WrathHoward Hawks
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sergeant YorkArchie Mayo
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Petrified ForestPeter Godfrey
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Christmas in ConnecticutWilliam Wyler
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The WesternerWilliam A. Wellman
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beau GesteKing Vidor
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Northwest PassageHenry King
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jesse JamesNorman Taurog
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Adventures of Tom SawyerLloyd Bacon
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marked WomanRay Enright
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DamesFritz Lang
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Western UnionVictor Fleming
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Test PilotMichael Curtiz
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Santa Fe TrailSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Grapes of Wrath
as Father (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Young Mr. Lincoln
as New Salem Townsman (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Grapes of Wrath
as Father (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Grapes of Wrath
as Father (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Grapes of Wrath
as Father (uncredited)
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Arthur Aylesworth has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Drama Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Grapes of Wrath
as Father (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Marked Woman
as Mr. Truble
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Young Mr. Lincoln
as New Salem Townsman (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Marked Woman
as Mr. Truble
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Grapes of Wrath
as Father (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Westerner
as Mr. Dixon - Homesteader (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Dames
as Train Conductor
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Santa Fe Trail
as Abolitionist at Russell's House (uncredited)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
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Reference
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